Reina del Cid Candy Apple Red Album Review & Happy May Day! ~ 01May22

Reina del Cid dropped their most recent album this week. This is my review of that. But first, happy May Day! It's a "holiday" we did more with back east I feel - more flowers were already out and folks were dressed less and rounded the Maypole. In Colorado we watch the snowpack melt a bit but also, as today, enjoy the new-fallen stuff keep coming... there are some lonely daffodils. Anyway, Reina del Cid's 4th studio effort, Candy Apple Red, couldn't be pressed to vinyl for the intro due to supply chain issues so I had to buy the 44.1Khz/16bit digital version. Rachelle Cordova & Toni Lindgren with studio bandmates are excellent, as always, on this offer. It is pretty true to RdC's bright but sometimes sad Americana.

The album is full of songs written and dropped in RdC's Sunday show ~ mostly pre-pandemic. It has a new release, the title track, but even includes much older songs. Here they are offered in full band studio productions but I've heard many with just RdC herself singing them while accompanying acoustic, or joined by just Toni. I can't say I like the album releases more - but they are all very good songs. Here's my screen in JRiver MC28 with the full track listing and a smidge of analytics shown. The album is decently produced with a measured PMF dynamic range of 7-8.

Note here I'll offer some of the initial recordings of the songs from this album - click through as interested. From the smooth rockin', and brand new, Candy Apple Red title cut about love and lost love, we come for RdC's keen voice, writing and arranging and Toni's fierce guitar accompaniment. 1970 is an older song I've heard before. An Americana ditty about recalled love... HERE is an alt version from 2018 in the Electric Fetus record store. Seasons is also an older song ~ HERE is an alt version early; RdC said: "about loving someone right through the best and worst of the turning seasons." Ferdinand is also fairly old; HERE is an original drop ~ weird song about Ferdinand & Isabella, king & queen of Spain, sung from Isabella's POV in a mod setting. Shot 'em Dead is also older and is a fun song about a serial killer ~ HERE an acoustic version from '17. Expiration Date was released on RdC's first album, Blueprints; it's excellent. I rarely suggest official videos but I do HERE from 2012 because it's a very early look at RdC in such a setting, and what a look compared to today. Honey From The Bee: the inevitability of the good and the bad. Alice is a Celtic cadence about a meeting. Cassiopeia is a very cool song tying a story with celestial bodies. Burn Out is a break up song from 2018. Finally the closer, Brandy and Wine is also a new release I believe - the double-en-tend-re clear enough. There is even a decent playlist of "new" material from the album from a live studio session done to support album release. Check out these full band studio versions below...

• Candy Apple Red
• Alice
• Seasons
• 1970

Maybe it's RdC's process, which lets me in on development of most of her songs all along the way, but this album was not therefore "new to me." I wasn't very surprised ~ but I was pleased.